


Cupid Owns Guns

by Auto_Alchemechanicist



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: Assassin AU, Blood and Violence, F/M, assassin and politician, politician au, spy AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-24
Updated: 2018-09-24
Packaged: 2019-07-16 09:19:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,310
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16083131
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Auto_Alchemechanicist/pseuds/Auto_Alchemechanicist
Summary: The prompt is basically instead of love at first sight, it’s love at first assassination attempt. Katniss Everdeen is an assassin hired to take down Peeta Mellark, a politician running for president of Panem. Is she as stone cold as she was trained to be or will his intriguing blue eyes soften her heart?





	Cupid Owns Guns

**Author's Note:**

> This is for @savvylark. I saw her post she shared and I couldn’t resist. what with her tags and all. Thank you for encouraging me to write this and for sharing your ideas with me! I used your suggestions, so I hope I did them justice. 
> 
> I don’t own the Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. i just use her characters as Barbie dolls to play with them and use them to my amusement lol. I hope you enjoy. :)

Katniss Everdeen stared at the file that rested on the table in front of her. She had been sitting on the floor of her apartment for the past couple of hours doing some research on her new assignment. The more information she found about her new target, the more she was against the task.

After working for the Mockingjay Project for years, she had gotten used to its business. By now, she was immune to feeling remorse after murdering the people on the organization’s hit list. She was convinced she could mask her emotions so well that she no longer recognized them as her own. It was better this way; lacking any sort of feelings allowed her to perform at her best and had no hindrance to stop and think about what she was doing. It was almost mechanical now: look up her target, track them down, aim, fire, kill, and then walk away. She could care less about the recognitions or the promotions in ranks she received. They didn’t matter to her. All that mattered was getting the job done right.

She hadn’t joined by choice, but given her other alternatives, this was the best she could get. The explosion that killed her family in District 12 had changed her. Having been caught in the hellfire, she had been paralyzed, weakened, and she would have been dead had she not been found by a couple of mysterious strangers. They took her in and healed her, but after giving her the multiple roads she could take, none of them sounded like they would lead to an ordinary life. Normalcy was far gone. At least in the Project, she would be able to have food on her table, which had always been an issue when she was younger. In exchange, she would provide services for them. Spies were in demand and given she had no where else to go and no where else to be, her talents were put to use. She was trained in the art of marksmanship after she showed promise with her archery skills; she spent months training in combat skills; and she was sent in mock missions to test how proficient she was. She compared her work to hunting, but the type she had done with her father was different and much more relaxing. The kind of hunting she did involved people and it had taken her time to believe they were just like the animals she had killed. At least, that’s what one of her colleagues, Gale Hawthorne, had said to convince her.

Her hit list included politicians, mob bosses, CEOs, and even the occasional celebrity. Given her skill, she was sought out to handle some of the most dangerous cases because she never missed her target. The only pride she took in her work was that her reputation earned her the title of the World’s Greatest Marksman. Only, it belonged to a woman.

Katniss took a few moments to process the information she had gathered, deciding on what she should do. She had done this just to find his whereabouts and habits, but his profile showed more promise than she had initially thought.

Peeta Mellark was a young politician running for president. This should have been like any other mission for an assassination since the politicians she had been assigned were corrupt and their ideals were inhumane in some way. Katniss had thought that just by looking at his picture, there was no possible way this young man could be so tainted by dishonesty or blinded by power. Of course, she could have been wrong and it was a brilliant façade he could pull off.

What she found was interesting, to say the least. His humble beginnings originated from District 12, the poorest district in the country. His parents owned a bakery and he had helped them when he was younger. He had also been interested in painting and wrestling. His motives for getting into politics came from the inevitable suffering he saw his people go through and the unfairness of starvation, poverty, and lack of proper resources. This encouraged him to fight for their rights for better living conditions. He advocated to end the hunger children experienced; he rallied for better paying jobs and cleaner resources; and he supported an educational system for people to improve themselves in business and sustainability. He won the support of the entire district in a land slide election for governor. The Golden Boy from District 12 had more ambition, however, and later was elected as a senator after his term ended in his home district.

To Katniss, it seemed almost impossible that at his age, he had achieved so much and in such limited time, but it didn’t take her long to realize why. Reading wasn’t enough to convince her because he sounded like a fairy tale that came from a children’s book. She needed solid proof that he wasn’t too good to be true. There were videos of his speeches and interviews—some short, some long—but Katniss watched them all. It was easy to see why he was well liked by the masses. His personality was electric. The way he carried himself so easily across the stage as he spoke confidently to the crowds of people that cheered for him made Katniss follow him across the screen. His words were moving, vivid, and charged with so much passion and care. He encouraged people and moved them to tears.

His appearance may have been a strong contributor to his popularity as well. He was handsome and charming with ash blond hair that was combed back. His bright blue eyes were captivating and attractive. He was stocky, sturdy, and muscular. His face looked trustworthy and kind with the sweet smile he offered people, almost as if he were shy and humbled to be in their presence.

Katniss had to remind herself how good of an actor he was and shouldn’t let herself get hypnotized by him. Even though his views matched hers, she couldn’t get attached, she couldn’t let herself relate to him, and she couldn’t feel sympathy for him.

The more she thought about him, the more frustrating and awful the situation was. Therefore, she tried to think of reasons why she shouldn’t trust him. His slogan, for one thing, was innocent and positive, which was actually quite fitting for him. Despite his charisma, he still had an air of naiveté, but that was probably why he came off as trustworthy and reliable. His youth aided him so well that people were eating out of the palm of his hand and kissing his feet.  _‘Aim high and shoot for the sky’_  sounded ridiculous to Katniss, especially since she was a markswoman. The only aiming she did was directed at people’s heads.

_“He’s a politician. He’s playing the game just like everyone else,”_  she thought. That’s what they did. Played with the public’s emotions so they could believe them and earn their votes. Mellark was just the same, except he played the game too well. It was difficult to tell if he was truly genuine about how he felt towards people suffering or if he was using his manipulative talents to feed off their misery and make a name for himself by getting a fancy title. Given that’s what politicians ended up doing, she wouldn’t be surprised if the latter were true.

An interview with Caesar Flickerman made her doubt both arguments of whether Mellark was an honest person or a calculating bastard.

“Politics is like a game of survival, and unfortunately, it can change people,” Peeta said.

“Do you feel like you’ve changed since you became a politician?” Caesar asked, picking up on the subject.

“I hope not,” Peeta answered with a chuckle. “I would like to stay myself and keep my integrity. I don’t want them to change me, turn me into some kind of monster that I’m not.”

“How would you say they would change you?” Caesar hung on the young leader’s every word, leaning in ever so slightly to listen closely at what he had to say.

Mellark let out a sigh, as if he were bracing himself to reply. “Corruption. Politicians become power-hunger and lose sight of important issues. It’s almost as if politics take control of the politician and they became pawns in the profession. I keep wishing I could think of a way to show them…that they don’t own me. That I’m more than just a piece in their games.”

He may have impressed the crowd that was watching him and may have convinced Caesar, but Katniss couldn’t help thinking he made everyone else sound inferior. She hated self-righteous people. Still, she couldn’t help feeling like he had a noble cause. Sure, no one had ever spoken his words, but it must take a great deal of courage to even mention that politics could control the people that dealt with it.

_“He’s just a politician,”_  she repeated to herself, trying to remain objective and focused. She didn’t want for her conviction to waver.

**

The presidential debate was about to commence and the crowd had been annoyingly loud for Katniss’s taste, but they were there to support their favorite candidates and she was there to assassinate one of them. She had positioned herself in an abandoned building that looked over the stage of the venue where the event would take place. The organizers were idiots for setting it up outside in the open, but Katniss wasn’t complaining since it made her job a lot simpler and cleaner.

The only thing she needed to do was wait for the right moment to shoot and she’d be done with it and on to her next target.

There were four podiums set up on the stage occupied by their respective contenders and towards the front was a table for Caesar Flickerman and Claudius Templesmith, the moderators for the debate who would be asking questions.

After Katniss had gathered enough information on Mellark, she had gotten curious about the other candidates and had decided to look up information about them as well. She hoped to distract herself so she wouldn’t forget her objective, even if that was a bit counterproductive. Two candidates represented the Capitol, but they seemed to differ tremendously given their records. There was Seneca Crane who had had a couple of scandals that involved marriage affairs. Then,  there was Plutarch Heavensbee, who had been involved with the media, but kept a tamer profile than his colleague. The last candidate, Alma Coin, represented District 13 and she had quite the record for maintaining the district underground yet functioning for human life to progress. She, too, looked like she was too good to be true, and she gave Katniss a suspicious vibe she couldn’t shake. Why hadn’t the Project targeted her instead?

There wasn’t much promise from the Capitolites, but at least Mellark and Coin had a higher chance of actually winning the race. It didn’t make sense to Katniss why the youngest was a target. To prevent him from becoming a perverted and corrupted liar? The other three candidates would have fit that criteria since they were already there. Her line of work may have involved murdering people, but there was something sinister about this assignment that Katniss couldn’t figure out. She had never found herself questioning her organization’s motives until the moment she set up her rifle and aimed at Mellark’s forehead. She couldn’t truly believe there was a valid reason to have to end his life so soon. If it came down to choosing the lesser of two evils, he would be the obvious option. Crane and Heavensbee didn’t look like they had a proper clue on running a nation. And Coin…her tone begged for trust, but Katniss couldn’t give that to her. There was a reason why she had detached herself from all of her emotions, but at the moment she couldn’t find it. Aiming at Mellark gave Katniss a clear view of his enthralling blue eyes and they proved that this mission wouldn’t be possible unless he either stopped breathing or…

_“No, not him,”_  she thought with conviction.

Without a second thought, she changed her target at the last moment and pulled the trigger, shooting Alma Coin straight through the heart. This would undoubtedly make it back to the Project, but it didn’t matter to Katniss. She wouldn’t be Peeta Mellark’s assassin.

She didn’t have time to watch the chaos unfold. If she stayed in the building, she would be found eventually and the last thing she wanted was to be discovered. There were sirens and screams of despair filling the air and that was enough for Katniss to get a vague idea of what was going on in the venue across from her. It also served as a convenient way of making an escape. When she made it out, she got a glimpse of what happened on the screens that were set up, as if replaying would calm anyone down. Alma Coin fell to the side, bloody and lifeless, while Mellark and the other candidates were rushed off by security guards to keep them safe.

She wondered if someone else would attempt to kill Mellark, or if the Project would somehow discard the mission as a failure. Somehow, she couldn’t fathom the thought and she knew she couldn’t return to the base that watched her grow up with the same mind set. She couldn’t go back to her life as an agent for them if it involved having to kill someone like that young candidate.

Was it worth it to keep Peeta Mellark alive at the expense of her lifestyle? There was something about him that moved her so much he’d convinced her to aim for a better life.

To aim high and shoot for the sky.

**Author's Note:**

> ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ I’ve pegged him for the type to get into politics just because he’s great a public speaking. 
> 
> I wish this had been longer, but I hope that I was able to deliver nonetheless! Who knows? Maybe in the near future, I could write a second part to this. It’s a fun au to think about and it’s far more mature than my UNIverse I’m writing. ;) I realize I could have used the obvious candidates, Commander Paylor and President Snow, but I didn’t want her to be caught in this storm and I want to point out he’s already in power and there are elections to replace him because he’s old^TM. About the spy theme, though, I kept James Bond in mind and remembered he was sent to kill people so I wanted to base Katniss on him a little bit, but not like you know, that cocky. 
> 
> Let me know what you guys think!


End file.
